Busch Gardens Halloween Harvest 2020: Treats by Day and Trickery by Night

Update: Additional dates have been added: Tuesday, Oct. 20 (5-9), Monday, Oct. 26 (5-9), Friday, Nov. 6 (5-9), Saturday, Nov. 7 (10-2 and 3-7 and 8-12), and Sunday, Nov. 8 (11-3 and 5-9).

If you’ve been hoping for some scary stuff this Halloween, we’ve got some great news. Busch Gardens has announced a new and modified Halloween event. While not exactly like Howl-O-Scream of previous years, Halloween Harvest offers treats by day and trickery by night.

Designed to provide fun and frights for all ages, this is a limited capacity outdoor special event, much like the Coasters and Craft Brews and the Taste of Busch Gardens food festival event (but with scares, screams and frights).

Kevin Lembke, president of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, said …

“Fall is a perfect time to visit the park and we’re thrilled to offer another limited-capacity special event that will showcase new villages and attractions we have not offered yet this year along with the greatest of Halloween experiences for all ages. We will continue operating with enhanced health and safety measures and have created an event that safely delivers a compelling combination of exciting coasters and rides, seasonal food and drinks and Halloween experiences for kids and adults.”

The event runs October 1 through November 1 on select days and times. Like the park’s previous events, there’s a four-hour time frame for each scheduled day. Reservations must be made as this is a limited capacity event.

The Williamsburg park comes alive with all-new experiences for the entire family. Six of the park’s villages will be all decked out with fall décor. Family-friendly fun, pumpkin scavenger hunts and contactless trick-or-treating for kids takes place during the day.

By night, roaming ghouls and goblins will be lurking in select areas for lots of nighttime fun and screams. Several roller coasters and rides will be open. You’ll also be able to enjoy lots of seasonal dishes and drinks.

Busch Gardens Halloween Harvest

• Thursdays: 5-9 p.m.

• Fridays, Sundays and Columbus Day: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.

• Saturdays: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 3-7 p.m. and 8-midnight

Roller Coasters and Rides

• Tempesto

• Apollo’s Chariot

• Loch Ness Monster

• Verbolten

• Turkish Delight

• Battering Ram

• Flying Machine

• Finnegan’s Flyer

• Der Wirblewind

Kid-Friendly Fun

• Sesame Street Forest of Fun

• Trick-or-Treating

• The Little Balloons

• The Little Gliders

Halloween Harvest of Fun Experiences

• Pumpkin scavenger hunt

• Roaming ghouls and goblins

• Carolee Vialetti art

• The Highland Stables

Villages open for Halloween Harvest

• Festa Italia

• Italy

• Sesame Street Forest of Fun

• England

• Scotland

• Ireland

There will be lots of specialty foods and desserts, beer from around the world and unique Halloween drink specials throughout the park. You can even expect the super fun syringes and “shots” of previous years. I have to give a huge shoutout to the culinary department on the German meatballs. They’re covered in a lemon caper sauce and absolutely delicious. They can be found at the kiosk beside Escape from Pompeii.

Halloween Harvest Food and Beverage Selections

• Best of Food & Wine festival: Menu items include shrimp po’ boy, fish and chips, cheddar hushpuppies, frozen dirty Shirley and ginger limeade.

• The Brew Bar: Enjoy a variety of beer selections and pretzel bites with beer cheese.

• Vesuvius Grill: Menu items include Ruben sliders, meatballs, frozen lemonade and draft beer.

• Marco Polo’s Marketplace: Choose from Italian and Asian entrees, Greek salads, roast beef sandwiches and refreshing beverages

• Jack’s Night Cap: Enjoy themed Halloween beverages such as bloody sangria, green demons, wine, syringes and test tube shots.

• Frost Bar: Choose from chilling beverages like the vampire bit, the bahummy mummy, bloody daiquiris, creepy coladas and a boozy pineapple float.

• Dessert Offerings: Try tasty sweets such as a pineapple whip, scary ice cream cones, caramel apples and cheesecake with pumpkin spice sauce.

Busch Gardens Halloween Harvest event admission starts at $49.99. The event is included free for active Members, Annual Pass Holders and Fun Card holders. There’s an online bundle option that includes admission and a tasting card for five menu items for $73.99. For 10 menu items, it’s $93.99.

Face masks are required. Temperature checks will be done upon entry to the park. The park has an excellent system of enhanced cleaning and sanitizing protocols. Event capacity is limited to allow for ample space for guests to enjoy the experience while practicing social distancing.

Reservations and tickets are available online beginning on Friday, September 25 beginning at 11 a.m.

Much like the rest of 2020, Halloween Harvest won’t be quite like its normal self. There won’t be haunted house mazes. There’s more of a concentration on the scare zones, where roaming scare actors may jump out and scare you. The outdoor aspect provides for better social distancing than the close quarters of an indoor haunted house.

If you have young kids, you may want to consider visiting during the daylight hours, so it’s quite dark and could be considered scary to some. If you’re expecting the all-out horror of Howl-O-Scream, this isn’t that, so it might be a great time to introduce your buddying horror fans to a lighter version of the scare scene.

Have you been to Busch Gardens’ Halloween Harvest yet?